Children with Autism in Early Childhood Education and Care

The videography of three autistic children in an integrative child day-care centre in Germany over a period of 4 months enables the camera to capture the paths that these children constantly follow, without any sign of an... [ view full abstract ]

The videography of three autistic children in an integrative child day-care centre in Germany over a period of 4 months enables the camera to capture the paths that these children constantly follow, without any sign of an identifiable destination or a meaning that can be shared with the community constituted by the majority of the group. The way in which they link up with people and space does not correspond to a "conjunctive experience" (Karl Mannheim) that establishes social cohesion imparted via a habitus of specific togetherness in a milieu (Pierre Bourdieu). Instead, their presence in the group interrupts this cohesion and micro structure, forming "lines of flight" (Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari). In addition, the children with autism enable wholly new assemblages of relationship (data evaluated using the documentary method of Ralf Bohnsack) to be established with other children and material reality, with these contradicting the expectations of the care staff and their professionalism which correspond to the macro structure in accordance with their respective educational attitude. In order to share this presence with the children with autism, in his 1970s project in the French Alps Fernand Deligny traced these lines and places occupied by the autistic children by their own actions. This way of being with the children (tracing the paths) and not being distressed by the fact that they cannot be integrated into the community and rendered "healthy" and "normal" was referred to by Deligny as "présence proche", a close proximity to the children. I would like to discuss what this approach can signify for the discourse of inclusive education in theory and practice.

Keywords: inclusive education, children with Autism, qualitative research in integrative day-care-centre, new assemblages of relationships with people and spaces, présence proche/ close proxitiy